Sunday, January 18, 2009

Okay so forget those rolls I posted last week, I'm sending out a recipe that is much lighter than your normal chili. It's not exactly the same as the traditional beef variety and it's probably tamer than many of you might like (but I'm a bit of a heat whimp when it comes to spice) but you're free to heat it up with as many chilies as you feel you must have.

Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil. Stir in cumin and chili powder and simmer 1 minute. Add raw chicken and cook over med heat until browned. Drain 1 can of garbanzo beans and puree both cans of beans with remaining the remaining liquid. Add chilis, broth, cannelli beans, then salt to taste.

I hope these instructions are thorough, I've made it so many times the details are a bit sketchy in my mind but this ought to get to you where you want to be.

***

And on a totally unrelated subject . . . we took the kids to see The Tale of Despereaux and I have to say it was pretty bad.

Besides the inelegant computer animation (the people resembled wax reinforced with rebar and made Disneyland animatronics look graceful) it took a full hour for the story to get established. AN HOUR. By that time you're wondering if you can abandon your children and sneak out of the theater to hang out in the lobby then you wonder if maybe anyone would notice if you turned on your cell phone and played a game or two and then you moan about why you didn't just give in and take the kids to Transporter 3 after all. Even extreme gratuitous fantasy violence would have been more bearable than what you are being forced to endure for the love of a child.

Maybe that's why it's called Despereaux. As in desperation.

After an hour of mindless meandering (including but not limited to a bizarre magic vegetable man, death by soup drowning and a rat with cataracts) a few new characters get introduced with very little happiness resulting and by the time the end credits roll you're convinced that the film without a doubt marks the end of a long and illustrious career for Mr. Dustin Hoffman.

It was all very surprising considering the enormous list of big timers that lent their voices to the film. Dustin Hoffman, William H. Macy, Tracy Ullman, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Emma Watson, Christopher Lloyd, Matthew Broderick, etc. etc. etc. Apparently two hours of voice work is a great way to make some change nowadays and doesn't necessarily guarantee my ticket price.

I also though Tale of Despearux was bad. It was dark and very humorless. I almost fell asleep a few times..oops! My husband read the book and said it was better, but still not a typical fun colorful kids bookie, nor was the movie!

I didn't care for Despereaux either, although I liked the animation. I liked the unique style and that it was different than other animated films (sort of how The Incredibles had that post-mod look to it). I also found the storyline lacking and felt a bit ripped off at the end.

Ooo sorry distracted by the 'sex' comment. So glad my Cantonese isn't up to scratch.

anyway......like the idea of chicken chilli, certainly never tried that. Sounds similar to something we had in Spain once, but accident because my Spanish is worse than my Mandarin!

We're due to see either Despereaux or Marley and Me tomorrow. I'm told that the later has a sad ending which I would personally enjoy tremendously but I don't think I can cope with the fallout from the little ones if something tragic happens to a dog.Cheers

I was going to wait for the DVD, but friends invited us, so we went. Our 2 10 yr olds liked it, I didn't think it was so bad, a kids movie, and the friend's mom is an English teacher...she commented that the book is always better! I would wait for the DVD. Redbox for a buck, or a FREE Monday!

I'm so sorry you didn't like the movie. It looks so good in the trailers. Oh well. And as far as Transporter 3 - you missed a good movie. OK, maybe not a good movie but there were some good eye candy moments (for me)! And the action scenes were good enough for my son and husband.

I am making this dish, tonight, Scribbit. Seriously. As soon as I catch up on my blogging, I will head to the store to buy the ingredients. Thank you for saving me the trip to epicurious.com.

Your comment about hoping that the recipe is correct made me smile. I have a few dishes like that up my sleeve. It would be difficult to sit down and explain how to make them. All of the details simply float around in my head.

I can't wait to try your Chili! Sorry the movie sucked! You would have really liked Transporter 3. I think it was the best of the three. The only downside was there was WAY to much romance/sexy stuff. It wasn't explicit or anything. There was just to much of it. I didn't go to the movie for sunrises and sweet nothings. I wanted car chases and kung fu. I still liked it though and would probably watch it again.

At least you didn't have to sit through it with 6 talkive little girls.....

Its saying a lot when I get bored by a movie. It generally doesn't take much to entertain me. Man...that was a bad, stupid, weird movie. The plot was so odd and didn't really go anywhere. And, I still want to know what was up with magic vegetable man. What was the point of that?

I love reading Newberry Award books, and so a few years ago I read The Tale of Despereax when it won. To be honest, I didn't like it very much. It wasn't horrible, but it never made my list of books to get, and I am not sure how it ended up being a Newberry Award Winner (although there are some others I haven't been too sure about as well). I don't plan to rent the movie when it comes out either.

I am a huge fan of white chicken chili -- I like to toss in lentil beans as well for some extra texture. Try topping it with toasted tortilla chips and some sour cream as well... mmmmmm! Mouth is watering just thinkin about it!

The book is one of my all-time favorite books. I love the story and the characters, but although I liked the movie, I did think it could have been developed better so that more of the beauty of the story was translated onto the screen. But you hated it! Goodness!

At least you didn't pay L.A. ticket prices! Then you would have been steaming mad!

Yeah, the movie was pretty bad. I loved the book, and the movie was only loosely based on the book. I actually think I might have liked it better had I not read the book. The kids liked it though, but then they liked Space Chimps (a last minute stop at the dollar theater is to thank for that indiscretion) so they are not the most discerning movie critics. :)